Arkham

Arkham is a character from the Devil May Cry 3 and is one of the primary antagonists, along with Vergil. A mysterious and shady individual, marked with burns on his face (that seem to pulsate at some points, possibly because of his demonic essence) and is also heterochromatic (one eye is blue, the other is brown). Arkham is human, though he is driven to become a demon, sacrificing his own wife to do so. A psychotically enthusiastic man, he wants to possess the power of The Dark Knight Sparda, and in order to do so, he has to unseal the tunnel between worlds, a tower known as Temen-ni-gru. Statements from Lady and Arkham suggest that Arkham may have never had these cruel intentions until he tapped into demonic powers. Arkham and Vergil meet each other in a library, that can only be assumed as Arkham's.

Arkham
Arkham is an ingenious master manipulator, pitting Dante, Vergil and Lady against each other by preying on their personalities and desires. To Vergil, he plays the role of a sycophant, pretending to help Vergil while plotting against him. He taunts and further enrages Lady, who is driven by her need for revenge on him, and later convinces her that his evil acts were Vergil's fault. To Dante, he appears in the form of an apparent resident of the tower named Jester, mocking Dante as he alternately advises and challenges him.

His plans are successful, and he is able to open the gate to the Demon World. He is the first to retrieve the Force Edge, and with its power, combined with the restored halves of Eva's amulet, he acquires a large portion of Sparda's power and takes on Sparda's demonic form. The power overwhelms him, however, and he further transforms into a shapeless blob form when he battles Dante. He is defeated when Vergil teams up with Dante and they cast him out of the demon world. Arkham lands back on top of the Temen-ni-gru. However the fall injured him further. Lady approaches Arkham, causing him to try to win her sympathy by claiming that he only wanted to be a god and that her mother's sacrifice was not in vain. This attempt at sympathy fails and, despite Arkham's screams, Lady shoots him four times in the head, killing him instantly.

Jester


Jester (ジェスター) is Arkham's alter ego. In this persona, Jester frequently taunts Dante, but occasionally provides some helpful hints and tips to him. In Devil May Cry 3: Special Edition, Jester also serves as a recurring boss, who can be fought three times, and his battles use circus props. He also seems to "bleed" confetti when struck.

Arkham in Blob Form
The apparent new god has now transformed into this gruesome beast after obtaining the power of Sparda. With this transformation, he has gained control over legions of slug-like creatures, as well as a few melee attacks which can cause immense damage. Ironically, this transformation was not a result of the induction of Sparda's powers, but rather, comes from the malevolence found in Arkham's heart.

Jester
During the first battle, he is very annoying, and he does not flinch if he's hit unless you strike while he fans himself with his scepter (this is triggered by shooting him with a firearm, but Ebony and Ivory are most effective). You are free to do your most punishing and powerful combos while he's doing this. After this, Jester vanishes and summons a flurry of energy spheres and behaves more like a circus ringmaster. He still won't flinch while doing this. The spheres can be unpredictable and hard to avoid, but he summons them in one of three attack patterns: scrambled, where the spheres bounce around the whole area;This is his most unpredictable attack, circulating, where the spheres move around the area in an orderly, yet slow and circular fashion;This is the easiest to avoid, and finally, waves, where the spheres come from a single portal above Jester, but in quick, devastating waves of three spheres in all directions; this is extremely hard to avoid if you are anywhere near Jester. The only way to endure the waves unhurt is through timing your rolling and staying far from Jester while he's doing this.

The second and third battles are similar to the first one, only with three major differences:
 * They can be skipped
 * Jester attacks a bit more aggressively
 * When about half his health has been depleted, Jester will summon a giant, smiling ball to ride and attack with.

When he summons the ball, Jester's arsenal of attacks will change slightly. Sometimes, the "ball" will shoot a bomb from its mouth, similar to the one that the Hell Wrath struggles with. Another ability it has is the uncanny ability to use the spectral hand found on demonic door barriers to attack, usually when Jester uses his spheres;You can tell if the ball will use it if it appears to be straining something. Then, there are the four large demonic barriers the ball summons when Jester uses any sphere pattern. Finally, the ball has the ability to explode when you attack Jester with a Devil Arm before he attacks. Once you make your move, Jester vanishes.The ball laughs and explodes a short time later. Jester then summons a new ball.

During the last battle, the ball has two more attacks: Jester will roll it around, damaging anything in its path, or he will bounce around the area with it.

It's possible to break the ball when Jester is fanning himself. Even though he will summon another one later, doing so will give you more time to attack

Powers and abilities
Despite his seemingly harmless appearance, Arkham is shown to be very agile, strong and flexible in human form. The first demonstration of his abilities was in Mission 1, in which he effortlessly lifts Dante's desk with one hand into the wall nearby and later disarming and throwing Lady off of Temen-ni-gru whilst still holding his book. As his last achievement, he effectively disables and defeats Dante, Vergil and Lady as he knocks all three of them away by catching them in a single spinning kick, despite being held at gunpoint with two swords drawn to his neck only moments earlier. As well, he shows himself to be resilient, able to survive wounds that would be fatal to a normal human, such as being stabbed by Vergil and falling a great length from the sky after his defeat at Dante and Vergil's hands.

As Jester he's fairly proficient in black magic. He has the ability to project force fields and apparently the power to teleport as well as to defy gravity to a degree to stick to walls and ceilings. In battle, he casts various spells and often summons a moon-shaped creature to assist him, which sometimes explodes to serve as a scapegoat.

After having acquired Force Edge, Arkham automatically takes on Sparda's form with a noticeable glowing aura surrounding him. Because he lacked the blood of Sparda though, the Force Edge did not transform with him. In his battle with Dante, the power of Sparda proved to be too much for him to properly handle, transforming him into a hideous blob-like creature due to his corrupted nature and cause. Despite wielding vast power, he doesn't seem to exercise much in the way of controlling it, often wildly swinging at his foes whilst firing damaging homing tendrils and summoning legions.

Background
Arkham's name and Jester persona most likely is a reference to two Batman concepts. The Jester is an insane and intelligent clown, like the classic villain Joker, and Arkham is the name of the infamous asylum in Gotham City, which the Joker is almost always imprisoned in. In Batman, the name of Arkham comes from Howard Phillips Lovecraft's books (Arkham is the name of a false town).

In fact, Jester was going to be named as Joker at first, but they finally refused.

The ball Jester summons has a split color scheme, with one half being purple and the other being white, which could be a homage to another villain from the Batman series, "Two-Face". However, it is also likely that it references Arkham's different coloured eyes.

Trivia

 * Jester is the PS2 memory card save icon for Devil May Cry 3 Special Edition. When attempting to copy, he'll start juggling the balls he's holding. Attempting to delete the save will cause him to get down on his hands and knees and shake his head in disappointment with the balls he was juggling being strewn on the ground next to him.